Crosland

ANE model is a Taiwanese business that sells their own design range of products http://www.anemodel.com/some of which are sold by Peco as their smartswitch range. Wickness Models are the only listed UK dealer.

If the coach light has too large a capacitor fitted for "flicker-free" operation and no current limiting resistor these can cause havoc with the DCC system. I seem to recall early Hornby Pullmans caused problems, some time ago now.

Make your own thin PCB to any thickness you want with self adhesive copper foil on plasitcard.

I just spent a whole day making DGs:) It is a bit time consuming but I find using the bending jig as per instructions gets you most of the way. Wrap a few turns of the PB wire, hold tight and cut through them, trying not to let the loops turn into ping-f**kits in the process. Square up with flat faced pliers. To solder the dropper I hold the loop and dropper in a miniature wooden clothes peg, squared of at the ends of the jaw, with 2-3mm poking out. Solder then turn round and make the rest of the joint. The peg will tend to soak up the flux at first. Andrew

Does the fibre glass brush work for getting the flux off? That's my main concern.

Moving on from the old layout has allowed me to focus and actually contemplate doing something. The "something" being my first DIY track in any scale or gauge. Not for me a simple turnout, lets build a crossover Thanks to those who gave advice on the 2mm VAG and to all involved in the "Track" book http://www.2mm.org.uk/products/trackbook/ Finished, still on the work board (two layers of 5mm foam board): I attached the sleepers to a sheet of OHP film with a minimum of double sided tape. After assembly the film was peeled off carefully. A cruel close up before cleaning: As an experiment I made some wing rails as separate pieces, some as extensions of the switches, isolated with a piercing saw after assembly. The latter produces better results, at least in my hands: On a plastic chopping board for cleaning. The residual stickyness holds it in place and allows for a reasonably vigorous scrub with CiF: So, how do you clean track that is built in-situ, on a non-waterproof surface, too big to get under the tap? The finished item, just waiting sleeper gapping, tie bars and operating unit. The sleepers are a bit uneven, but I'm well pleased with the trackwork and a test wagon runs through in all directions Go on, have a go yourself! Andrew

After very slow progress and a lot of dithering, I have decided this layout does not meet my requirements and am offering it to anyone who can collect it from Haddenham, Buckinghamshire. Please PM me for more details of the state of the layout.

Not quite free, but a job lot of the first 25 issues of LMS Journal for less than £3 each inc. P&P. Sold 6 I already had for £7 each I've often aggregated things into one listing where I had multiples to sell, but I can only assume it puts a lot of bidders off.

Be aware that some of these do not go all the way down to 0. They do, however, make very good mini-drill controllers. Andrew

Someone seems to be a little confused between scale and gauge. I never heard a farish power bogie described as finescale before http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/RARE-9mm-N-gauge-2mm-FINESCALE-GWR-14xx-0-4-2-Tank-Autocoach-BRASS-KITBUILT-/221799041616?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item33a440ca50

Reminds me of the Matchbox motorway I had as a kid. Andrew

You need smooth, not pulsed, DC to cure that and, more generally, DC running needs to be enabled in the chip.

OK. I was looking at what looks like a path on the far bank that goes to a dead end at the bridge.

If Jerry's bridge is a normal bridge, where does the horse go when it reaches the bridge travelling right to left in the picture? Yes, I know horses can swim

I do enjoy building kits but that remark is a direct hit!

Is the Black 5 chassis for the Farish body? Perhaps not a question directly for you, but will this affect the decision whether or iot to restock the Black 5 kits? Andrew

It's known as spreading FUD, or Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt. Plenty of that in this thread

Kapton is often specified where something very thin and/or able to withstand heat is required. If those requirement do not apply then almost any insulator will do.

There are a number of reasons why it's useful to allow a servo it's full travel and then use mechanical means to adapt it to the required throw. - Mitigating the effect of any twitch in the servo. - Better resolution of slow speed operation by slowly changing the pulse width from one exrteme to the other. - Simple control circuit with just two switchable pulse widths

I was outbid on a book, so bought the same item from an Amazon seller for less than the winning bid (inc postage). Some bidders just do not do their homework

I'm still living it I can think of very, very few situation where a mobile is neccessary where we didn't cope previously. Don't get me started on people who need to use one whilst driving... The most useful use for a smartphone is to run WiThrottle or Engine Driver. Andrew

Or, fill in the missing pieces, remove the unneccessary pieces and spin the other way Control software = bluetooth software stack = bluetooth transmitter = bluetooth transmission = bluetooth receiver = bluetooth software stack = accessory/ loco control As against Control software = computer interface = DCC bus transmission = DCC decoder = accessory/loco control. Andrew

Any system with similar capabilities to DCC is going to require configuration, call it CVs, or whatever. Tuning loco speeds, setting up consists, setting function behaviour, etc,... If all it really requires is a better user interface then there is no real obstacle to achieving that with DCC? How do you see Bluetooth on its own providing user simplicity, other than to the simplest use cases bu the simplest user? It doesn't, it's just a communications medium. You need to decouple bluetooth as a technology from what the system provides or is capable of. There's nothing magical about bluetooth that couldn't be achieved in other ways. Andrew

It's not clear if you are talking about a simple Bluetooth radio interface or an integrated chip with radio and processor to run the software stack. Which of the latter are 10s of pence in volumes likely to be used by decoder manufacturers? The price of the interface or processor is only part of the cost of a decoder and DCC decoders (apart from sound decoders) do not use expensive chips. An integrated chip with Bluetooth radio interface and processor is likely to be a similar cost. What really matters, however, is the production volume of the final product. USB-Bluetooth interfaces, for example, are made in the 1,000,000s and may well become 2 a penny. Loco decoders, whether Bluetooth or DCC are made in much smaller volumes and development costs are amortized over those smaller volumes. Andrew

There is no advantage over DCC. DCC already has "direct connection to software driven computing devices". There are already a number of software packages from free open source to closed, proprietary and expensive. I know of, probably half a dozen, home brew systems connecting computers directly to the layout. The real issues for layout automation, regardless of the transmission medium is instrumenting the layout, designing the panels, signalling logic and interlocking, etc. Merely switching to Bluetooth solves none of this. Already done for a number of layout control systems. Note I don't say DCC as this is outside the core scope of DCC I'm not against using Bluetooth (or IR or Wifi or ...) but lets be honest about what it brings to the party. Andrew